Louisiana Tech Bulldogs College Football Pregame Quote, 09/06/2022

I have known Colby Carthel for quite some time. I have a lot of respect for SFA and his staff. We are looking to take a big step forward from last week. It is important for us to improve in a lot of areas. Offensively protecting the football is a key for us and defensively it is tackling. So the fundamentals of football… We have a lot of work to do. Our players came in and practiced well Sunday night. I am looking forward to getting back to it today as we prepare for a really good team on Saturday.

On QB Matthew Downing:

Matthew did a lot of really good things we had an opening drive where we converted on a lot of third downs. He had a lot of good body throws. He made a nice play on a pass to Griffin Hebert where he put it in the only spot he could make a catch. He did some really good things against a good defense that was well-coached. On the turnovers, one was a tipped pass, and his arm was hit on the other one. He probably could have came off in the progression on the third one, but I am not disappointed we just have to protect the football.

On what he was pleased with at Mizzou:

Our players showed a great effort level. Our sideline had a lot of good, encouraging teammates in moments when we needed it and also when we had good plays. Some of the positives on offense was our ability to hit explosive plays in the passing game. We recognized things well in the run game but we need to create more space and explosive plays. We saw some guys emerge on offense like Cyrus Allen and Griffin Hebert.

Tre and Smoke Harris all made plays and Parker McNeil came in off the bench and threw the ball well. On defense we did not allow many big plays. We have to eliminate penalties and tackle better. We have to create more of a pass rush up front but we will identify those things, work anthem and try to find solutions.

On starting QB:

We will take it on a week-to-week basis and evaluate it through practice to see.